Derry, NH's "The Derry Fairy"

The story first told of an unnamed man who, on Dec. 15, 1956, went out into the woods of Derry, NH to harvest Christmas trees. The woodsman looked up from his work and was startled to see something staring silently back at him. It was, to his amazement, a little green critter that stood only about 2 feet tall.

The man described the “thing” as being “neither human nor animal.” His (or her) skin was green and wrinkled much like that of an elephant’s. Its head was dome-shaped with ears that hung down like that of a basset hound. On its face were holes where its eyes should be. These eye openings were covered with a clear film like that of a reptile. Extending out from its torso were short little legs and arms with “stubby hands and toe-less feet.” This description reminds me of the space visitor in the 1982 movie “E.T.”, or a goblin!

The man watched the critter for about 20 minutes, and I suppose the creature watched the man for 20 minutes. At that point, the human decided his friends would never believe this sighting of a “little green man” in Derry. I suppose he reckoned that most people would probably believe that he was either lying, had too much to drink, or was just plain crazy.

To prove the story, he jumped on the little critter and tried to capture it. Immediately the Derry Fairy began to scream so loudly that the man was terrified and ran away. And our little green visitor was never seen again.

Is the story true? I haven’t a clue. It doesn’t seem to have been reported in the news at the time. The tale originated from a pair of letters written in 1962 and 1964. In those letters, Alfred Horne, of Derry, told of his sighting of the green man to Boston astronomer Walter H. Webb, who was a well-known writer and researcher into the truth behind UFOs. Over the years, the Horne sighting was retold many times and is now included in many sites on the World Wide Web. Alfred G. Horne lived on Berry Road in Derry in the 1940s and 1950s, along with Annie and Marion Horne. Maybe Derry should copy Roswell, N.M. Each year thousands of tourists flock there to see where their famous little green man was found!